DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

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Disharmonic Orchestra is an Austrian death metal/grindcore band that was formed in Klagenfurt, in 1987. Two demos were recorded. A gig in Germany with Pungent Stench led to a deal with Nuclear Blast in 1989. The first outcome of that deal was a split with country-mates Pungent Stench. After they released two full-length albums with Nuclear Blast they signed a new deal and released their third album on Steamhammer. The albums sound rather different from each other. The band took a break in 1994 . This timeout lasted until 2002 after their debut album Expositionsprophylaxe had been re-issued. A new album was recorded, titled Ahead.

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DISHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Reviews

Disharmonic Orchestra is not your average death metal band. For a start, the band has only three members. They are also fond of a bit of experimentation, usually frowned upon in such a restrictive genre. `Not To Be Undimensional Conscious' is not your average death metal album either.

Unusual samples of a ringing telephone, and some hard to distinguish sounds, jazzy, almost funk-style bass, blasts, dysrhythmic percussive patterns, and Patrick Klopf's unique death grunt all feature, and that's just in the first moments of the opening track. From the song titles, it should be plain to see the lyrics are not the usual death metal staples of gore and violence. Emotion, love, dreams and philosophy seem to be the focus.

The most unusual part of Disharmonic Orchestra's sound is that the drums are the lead instrument. In death metal, the rhythm guitar generally holds the main riff of the song, and bass, drums and vocals all hang off it. Not here. Drummer Martin Messner is lord and master of this album, rejecting traditional straight forward death metal drumming in favour of off the wall beats, twisted fills, and jazz drum patterns, without ever missing a beat or losing any impact. The death metal staples of blast beats and double kick drumming are still there, but aren't the dominant features of Messner's unique style. Imagine a heavier, slightly less frenetic version of Atheist and you won't be far off the mark.

Bassist Herwig Zamernik is the heaviest funk bass player you'll ever hear. His instrument still has dirty death metal distortion, but he slaps, plucks, and generally dances up and down the fretboard with skill and dexterity hardly seen in any form of metal. Occasionally, the bass sounds high in the mix, but the bottom end is never neglected. "Addicting Seas With Missing Pleasure" starts with a slap bass riff, using death metal tunings, which is odd yet striking.

With so much happening in the rhythm section, the guitars don't need to do much. Most of the riffs are simplistic, but heavy. The uncompromisingly heavy guitar sound is very close to that of fellow Austrian psychos Pungent Stench. It is not until fourth track "The Return Of The Living Beat" that the guitar dictates proceedings. There's a funky breakdown, with rapped clean vocals, but true to form, the sound is still pure death.

There is a huge experimental, progressive influence on this album. The moody, spaced out, mostly instrumental "Timeframe" spins a simple, repetitive bass melody through the song, accompanied by piano and acoustic guitar, which rips into a short metal passage, before returning to the drifting beauty of the main theme of the song. It is too subtle for the average Cannibal Corpse fan, but would also be too scary for Dream Theater listeners.

This is extreme art rock without the pretension. Sure, it's death metal, but it's so much more. If you can find `Not To Be Undimensional Conscious', approach it without any preconceptions, and you'll be rewarded.

"Not to be Undimensional Conscious" is the 2nd full-length studio album by Austrian Avant garde/ Experimental death metal act Disharmonic Orchestra. None of the band´s earlier death metal/ grindcore releases have exactly made my blood boil, but "Not to be Undimensional Conscious" is usually highly regarded by fans of the more avant garde part of the death metal genre and several people have recommended me to take a proper listen to the album. I remember listening to the album at a friend´s house back in day. I always felt the album was very weird and back then it didn´t suit my tastes one bit. I decided to give "Not to be Undimensional Conscious" one more chance though and I´m glad I did.

Disharmonic Orchestra was basically a simple death metal/ grindcore act with few experimental moments on their early releases, but with "Not to be Undimensional Conscious" they earned their avant garde/ experimental tag. The foundation in the music is still death metal with growling vocals but with lots of experiments along the way. The first thing I noticed was that the bass is very prominant in the mix. It has a life of its own and doesn´t follow the guitar much. The drums are fusion-influenced and sometimes remind me of the drums on the "Unquestionable Presence (1991)" album by Atheist. So a very interesting change to the rythm section compared to earlier releases by the band. There are also several experiments with polyrythms and odd time signatures that should please fans of the genre. I generally enjoy the sometimes odd experiments on the album but I have to admit that the rap part in "The Return of the Living Beat" somewhat turns me off.

The album was recorded and mixed at the famous Sunlight Studio in Stockholm, Sweden by just as famous producer Tomas Skogsberg (check almost any Swedish death metal release from the early nineties and Tomas Skogsberg was involved as producer). It was produced by Disharmonic Orchestra and Tomas Skogsberg and the result is very enjoyable IMO. The power trio sound works very well here.

So "Not to be Undimensional Conscious" is a massive improvement over earlier releases by Disharmonic Orchestra and while the album isn´t perfect (at least not to my ears) it should certainly be considered a classic experimental/ avant garde death metal album. Essential or not my rating is 3.5 stars. I might upgrade my rating to 4 stars some time in the future though. I sense this album is a grower.

"Expositionsprophylaxe" is the debut full-length studio album by Austrian death metal/ grindcore act Disharmonic Orchestra. Much like the two preceeding releases by the band, "Expositionsprophylaxe" features a pretty simple and at times noisy take on the genre. The avant garde tag that Disharmonic Orchestra earned with their 2nd full-length studio album "Not to be Undimensional Conscious (1992)", can´t be used to explain how "Expositionsprophylaxe" sounds. There are experimental parts on the album but the basic style is simple death metal/ grindcore. An example of the more experimental nature of the music can be heard in a track like "Disharmonisation". The music is overall a bit too primitive and generic and the weak production doesn´t help much either. The drums are way too high in the mix and have a funny sound while the guitar totally drowns.

I listened to "Expositionsprophylaxe" back in the early nineties. A friend of mine had the album on LP and he got me a cassette copy which I listened to on occasion. It never did much for me though and listening to "Expositionsprophylaxe" again after all these years doesn´t help much on my initial impression. A 2 star rating is warranted.

"Disharmonic Orchestra / Pungent Stench" is a split EP release featuring the two Austrian grincore/ death metal acts Disharmonic Orchestra and Pungent Stench. Pungent Stench side of the split contains 5 tracks while Disharmonic Orchestra´s side of the split contains 7 tracks. The split was released through Nuclear Blast Records.

The music style that the two bands play on this EP is a far cry from the experimental/ avant garde metal of later releases by Disharmonic Orchestra and the Mentors influenced splatter/ gore death´n´Roll of later releases by Pungent Stench (songtitles like "Klyster Boogie" and "Splatterday Night Fever" from the later part of Pungent Stench discography says it all now don´t they?). Both bands play simple grindcore/death metal on this split release and while that style isn´t necessarily the most interesting thing in my world (unless it´s something really special) the music does have a certain primitive charm to it that I enjoy. Growling vocals, blasting drums and fast played hardcore influenced guitar and bass riffs is the order of the day. There isn´t much difference between the sound of the two acts but if I have to chose I´ll say that I find Pungent Stench output to be the most interesting part of the split. The sound quality is better on the Pungent Stench material too.

All in all this is a rather rare release if you find it in one of the limited coloured vinyl versions (500 in green vinyl, 250 in yellow vinyl and 250 in Orange vinyl). The quality of the release isn´t that high though and IMO this is mostly a fan item. It´s not really poor but not that exciting either. A 2 star rating is warranted.

If you know the "Disharmonic Orchestra / Pungent Stench" split EP from earlier that same year, there are really no surprises listening to the music on "Successive substitution". Simple grindcore/death metal with growling vocals, blasting drums, heavy mid-paced death metal parts and some rather imature musicianship are pretty much the order of the day on "Successive substitution". The sound quality isn´t very good, but it´s fortunately not too lo-fi for me to enjoy.

"Successive substitution" is a hardcore fan release IMO and I can´t really recommend it to anyone else. If you´re interested in listening to the very early days of the band I would recommend listening to the split EP with Pungent Stench instead. "Successive substitution" gets a 1.5 - 2 star rating from me.